Even in winning, Duke men’s basketball team still lacks its best shooting touch
The numbers showed a far better shooting performance for No. 6 Duke on Friday night, a much-needed sight after the Blue Devils struggled three nights earlier in a loss to Michigan State.
Right there on the stat sheet it showed Duke made 13-of-26 3-pointers, shooting 51.8% overall, to topple Division I newcomer Bellarmine 76-54 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Having made just 5-of-23 3-pointers while losing 75-69 to No. 8 Michigan State on Tuesday night, the Blue Devils certainly enjoyed seeing the ball go through the net more often as they never trailed against the Knights (0-1).
Mike Krzyzewski believes it can get even better for his team. While not turning up his nose at the game, he acknowledged two players carried the shooting load that lead to the easy win.
Matthew Hurt nailed 6-of-8 3-pointers — yes, he had more than the entire team did one game earlier — and breakout freshman Jaemyn Brakefield drilled all four of his 3-point attempts.
So they were 10 of 12 from behind the arc. The rest of the Blue Devils were 3 of 14.
“Two guys were unbelievable,” Krzyzewski said as he examined the postgame box score during his Zoom news conference with reporters.
But Duke needs more to accomplish its annual goals of winning ACC and NCAA championships.
“Our perimeter can shoot better than what it’s doing,” Krzyzewski said.
Sophomore Wendell Moore struggled for the second night in a row. After his 0-for-9 shooting against Michigan State, he, well, improved to 1 of 7 against Bellarmine.
Remember the 24 points freshman guard DJ Steward scored in Duke’s 81-71 win over Coppin State a week ago? Steward hit only 2-of-7 shots to score four points against Bellarmine.
Jalen Johnson, selected to the preseason All-ACC team, was subpar for the second game in a row. Sure, the athletic 6-9 forward made 4-of-6 shots and hit a 3-pointer, but he only scored nine points.
For the second game in a row, two early fouls limited Johnson’s playing time. He played seven minutes in the first half against Michigan State and only three over the first 20 minutes against Bellarmine. He didn’t score his first basket until 8:47 remained in the game.
Johnson is expected to be a major part of Duke’s offense. He had 19 points and 19 rebounds against Coppin State. But the fouls he committed that sent him to the bench were legitimate, Krzyzewski said. And that has to stop for Duke to reach its potential.
“Jalen got two quick fouls,” Krzyzewski said. “So even the new stuff that we’re trying to incorporate offensively to get a better half-court offense, it was better. But you have two days of preparation and you are working out with that unit and all the sudden it’s a different unit.”
Hurt and Brakefield were good enough so that the situation didn’t turn dire against Bellarmine.
On Tuesday night, No. 5 Illinois comes to Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke will need more than just two players shooting well to beat the Illini.
The Blue Devils will also have to take better care of the basketball. Duke had 22 turnovers against Coppin State, 12 against Michigan State and the number swelled back up to 18 against Bellarmine.
Duke has turned the ball over on 23.3 percent of its possessions. The Blue Devils were around 17 percent each of the past two seasons.
Perhaps the pandemic can be partially blamed. In normal seasons, Duke plays two full exhibitions before its first regular-season game. By now, the Blue Devils have usually played eight or nine games that count.
This year, they jumped into play with no exhibitions. They got a late start on real games when the Nov. 25 season opener with Gardner-Webb was postponed due to the visiting team’s COVID-19 issues.
Combine that with the usual roster turnover that’s an annual occurrence for Duke in the one-and-done era and cohesion is lacking.
“You’ve got to get to know one another,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s not going to be a well-oiled machine, but it’s got to be a hard-working machine and a machine that keeps cutting down on the turnovers. We just have to keep working and keep trying to get better.”
The talent appears to be there. The defense played really well early in the second half as Duke turned its 10-point halftime lead into a 20-point edge.
The shooting? Outside of Hurt and Brakefield, it’s a work in progress.
That’s true even on a night Duke wins by 22 points.
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 11:26 PM with the headline "Even in winning, Duke men’s basketball team still lacks its best shooting touch."